Kenney Pens Trek Experience Book

Sean Kenney, best known to original series fans as the original Captain Pike, and as Lt. DePaul, has written a book chronicling his Star Trek experience.

The book, Captain Pike: Found Alive! is available in both print and Kindle format, and the first two chapters can be read for free at Amazon.

Kenney decided to write about his experiences on the original series after being urged to do so by others. “There’s an old saying, ‘Baring one’s soul is most difficult,'” said Kenney. “I thought that this was going to be the case when I was prompted by friends, family and fans to write my memoir. There were many Star Trek fans who asked me whether I had thoughts of writing about my experiences on the Star Trek TV series in the roles of Captain Pike and also as the ship’s 1st helmsman, Lt. DePaul.”

Landing the role of Pike came courtesy of Kenney’s resemblance to Jeffrey Hunter. “To those people who may be interested in acting or a life of an actor, I’ve reminisced about how fortuitous it was when I got my first opportunity to act in a theater performance when the lead actor couldn’t show up for the sold-out performance,” said Kenney, who was able to snag the role because as the sound effects man for the production, he knew everyone’s lines.

“Through a lucky break, there was an agent in the audience that brought me to meet Gene Roddenberry, who was looking for someone who had the features and bone structure similar to Jeffrey Hunter, who couldn’t make it to complete the Menagerie episode. The rest is history.”

Being a guest star who was unable to speak (due to the Pike makeup) made Kenney a “keen listener” who “became like part of the set, invisible.” The actor started to hear interesting conversations from the actors. “I got an ear full!” said Kenney. “I soon realized that yes, Bill Shatner was not well liked and in fact he was disliked. But then again his role was the Captain of the ship and he took his role seriously, on and off the set.”

To purchase the book in print or Kindle form, or to read the first two chapters, head to the link located here. Click on the picture of the book to read the first two chapters.

Author

If that’s a recent photograph, I’ve got to say, he has aged well! On that picture, he looks like he still could be in his 50s, which is obviously impossible. According to Memory Alpha, he’ll be 69 in a few weeks!

Truth

The “original” Captain Pike? He was the second actor to play the character.

Polaris01313-1

This should be an interesting book to read.

It’s no secret that Bill Shatner is not well liked. Having met the man, myself, within five minutes, I grew to dislike him. Maybe not as much as I dislike Dennis Bailey, Vic Mignogna, Alec Peters, Michael Bednar, and a few others in the Star Trek realm, but definitely close!

It depends how you look at it… From a production standpoint, yes. From a screen seen standpoint, no, he’s the first incarnation we ever saw of Christopher Pike… The first pilot was never aired as itself until the late 80’s or early 90’s.

JWPlatt

Great post, T’Bonz. I went to Amazon and put this book on my wish list.

Sometime in the early 1970s, when I watched reruns every day, I wrote to the Star Trek Welcommittee. Does anyone remember them? I think when I join, I get letterhead and other cool stuff. Or maybe that was from the 1975 Philadelphia Star Trek convention – I forget (Nichols, Doohan, Koenig and Takei attending). They had a transporter mock-up at that convention – very cool. Koenig’s wallet was stolen there. Anyway, I asked the Star Trek Welcommittee, because I didn’t know any better (I guess I could have just watched the credits), if that was Jeffrey Hunter as the injured Captain Pike in The Managerie. They wrote back saying that it was indeed Jeffrey Hunter. Wrong! I guess they didn’t know everything. 🙂

Mike

Kind of ironic that this guy looks so fantastic, while Jeffrey Hunter was dead by 1969.

T’Bonz

I remember the Welcommittee. Damn, I’m old. 😉

T’Bonz

I think the photo isn’t quite current, but it was a really nice photo of him.